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Id have to say to take a deep breath, delete your post, and move on with your life. A lot of what you ranted about is a big deal (to you and me) but probably not to the manager or the owner. Its probably always been like this and they have boarders so why change? Im sure you knew about the blanket charge since this would be the second winter you have been through there. You list a lot of things off as being "wrong" or "crappy" and they might be but they are pretty standard and not something I would consider vent worthy. I also dont get why you stayed at this place for 15 months. In Richmond, there are many good boarding options.

I get the feeling you are probably a college student and young and maybe this is your first experience in a boarding situation gone wrong. Id have to say that I was pretty shocked, hurt, embarressed, pissed, and totally in the "right" when my first adult boarding experience went sour and wanted to shout from the rooftops about how crazy the owner was, etc but it really doesnt help anything. Just move on!

I don't know what happened but I can tell you that I stayed at a less then acceptable barn when I was younger because I didn't know any better. My parents didn't really know anything about horses so they didn't know better either and my friends were too polite to say anything. It was only after a series of major events that I moved and then I realized that I should have moved much much sooner.

I got to watch the BO padlock a horse in a stall while drunkedly screaming at the police who showed up. After that they locked all the gates onto and off the property and blocked the driveway from trailers showing up.

OP sorry you are having such a difficult time of this and regardless of the validity of your claims, it does come across as emotionally fueled "I'll get you."

Without hearing both sides of the story, I have no problem believing that what you claim may even be an understatement given the boarding/barn situations I've seen. There are crazies everywhere but in the horse world...IDK just seems like we have more than our fair share. And sometimes they are at the top of the pile, sometimes they are at the bottom. We knew/know a former USET member who is well known for flipping out, padlocking horses in their stalls, assaulting people...just goes on. It takes a LONG time sometimes for the "insulation" that some of these folks enjoy to start wearing off.

So - as I think has already been said - off to your horse's new digs...put a smile on your face and REFUSE to say anything bad about the place you came from (delete or heavy edit ASAP). And realize that so long as you are having to board a horse somewhere, your idea about appropriate care is likely to differ from BO/barn management at 90% of the places you will go. Best to just hold you head high. And don't burn bridges....as in the right as you may be, and you may never do business with these folks again, others will hear about it and a bridge you never knew existed might end up getting burned. It's a small, small world, this horse biz...

I don't know what happened but I can tell you that I stayed at a less then acceptable barn when I was younger because I didn't know any better. My parents didn't really know anything about horses so they didn't know better either and my friends were too polite to say anything. It was only after a series of major events that I moved and then I realized that I should have moved much much sooner.

I got to watch the BO padlock a horse in a stall while drunkedly screaming at the police who showed up. After that they locked all the gates onto and off the property and blocked the driveway from trailers showing up.

Seems OP is a young person, she can chalk this unpleasantness up as a learning experience in selecting boarding barns as well as handling disputes realizing there are always 3 sides to any dispute, side A, side B and the truth somewhere in the middle.

But she may learn that trashing a previous barn with names and complaints about some common boarding barn practices and charges on a very heavily visited BB like COTH makes future BOs a little reluctant... Wouldn't blame them.

The too much pee is nuts (unless op demands more stall time then normally offered) but the rest of this is not unusual and 495 a month for stall board with arenas is not going to get the equivalent of the Four Seasons.

I can back up everything she said, unfortunately... I boarded there a few years ago and it was a great day when I left!

My friend's horse had to be moved to a "lesser" stall because it, too, urinated too much. They refused to feed my horse adequate hay even after he was scoped and found to have ulcers and the VET said he had to have access to hay constantly. I bought a hay net and it was always empty. And boarders were not allowed to touch the hay or grain under any circumstances.

You may have genuine grievances, however,slamming the barn and BO on a national BB, and especially suggesting "illegal activity" is not wise and doesn't reflect well on you.

Exactly. BO could go after her for slander, I would think, so the OP really may want to take everyone's advice and edit her posts. Just because the BO requests cash instead of checks doesn't immediately mean tax evasion! A lot of my horse professionals (farriers, hay guy, etc) request cash because it's easier & more reliable for them than cashing 500 checks every week, some of which may bounce. Perhaps the BO has had problems with bad checks.

While the OP may have some valid points, I think the high road would have been to simply left and talked with your money. It doesn't appear than any horses are in danger, and if the BO is still in business, obviously she's doing something right.

While I wouldn't (and didn't) go on a public forum bashing Still Ridge and it's owners/managers... I can't stress enough how right the OP is about this place! I don't know anything about tax evasion or paying in cash bc when I was there they took checks...

I was there for a while, too... like the poster above said- sometimes it is a bunch of little things that just keep adding up... like a powder keg.

Anyways- if this thread saves even 1 person from having to deal with these crazy people that is good enough for me.

I also would have to agree with OP, unfortunately I can back up everything she has said. I spent over $250 in Vet bills because my horse "peed too much" She is a large draft horse who drinks 3 plus buckets a day...its got to go somewhere....Also OP I doubt you will be "sued" for slander I have seen much worse written on this site about people. I agree with Samantha if this post can save one person from boarding there then it is worth it.

I am not a young college student I have boarded in many different places in all different states and this place by far takes the cake at manipulation that is why it takes time to all add up. Once I was on to BO "bad list" she made my life very difficult, I gave my 30 days notice when I knew this situation was not working out in my favor or theirs and she requested I leave sooner, and this request came while I was out of town at a work function. Luckily I had some amazing friends who were also currently there (and leaving) who were able to gather my things and my horse and get her out of there. I have now been happily at another barn for over 2 years. Good luck OP and if you need help finding a new place contact Samantha or I for some suggestions!

When I lived in that area I did check out this farm for boarding, and honestly I got the nuts vibe from the BO and decided against boarding there. The first red flag was she told me because me and my husband weren't married at the time he wouldn't be allowed on the property because of her children and she didn't want them around any single men (ummmm ok)
There were some other oddities, like pushing field board, this is the owners part of the barn I will let you see it just this once, but boarders stay over there etc.

I too question why the OP didn't leave sooner if the conditions were so deplorable. I'm not defending the BO, but if the OP had boarded her horse at this barn for 15 months and was "happy" there until the BO asked her to remove her horse, I question how bad it could be. Obviously, there are other boarding alternatives available in the area.

Like I said (apparently twice now that the threads are merged) I had no idea the place I boarded at was bad until I left and there were plenty of things that were not "bad" that now irritate me.

For example, my horse stayed in a pasture with barbed wire fencing. With my lack of horse experience at the time I had no idea this wasn't a normally acceptable fencing. It wasn't until he stepped over the fencing (that was falling down) and cut his leg (and nobody called me) that I realized it could be unsafe.

I know nothing about the place in question, but the OP buries her reasonable complaints in some unreasonable ones.

Footing is a serious issue, but many facilities that charge reasonable rates for boarding do not bring in enough money to pay for footing upgrades. Footing upgrades are a ridiculously expensive undertaking, even worse if the arena base also needs work. I doubt that the condition of the arenas was kept secret from you at the time you moved in which means that you accepted that at the outset--so, probably not fair for you to be complaining about it so vehemently now. I'm also not sure why the jumps wouldn't be moved when the ring is dragged.

Re: hay, I can't speak to this barn in particular, but I can say that unless you are at the barn 24/7 it may be difficult to gauge how much hay other horses are getting. I have a couple of horses are served huge quantities of hay (which is fine), and clean up every stem of it before they are turned back out at the next feeding, so you'd never know they had just eaten 3/4 of a bale of hay if you came out at feeding time--or that I put a few extra flakes in another horse's stall at night check or at lunch because they looked a little low on hay. Boarding barns can't afford to waste hay, and if this place has such lush grass that horses are overweight and foundering it might very well be appropriate for many horses there to be not eating large quantities of hay in their stalls.

Actually, speaking of the lush grass in the fields, exactly what exactly would you have the BM do about it? Let the fields go to weeds? Kill the grass somehow? Some areas have naturally very rich grass and using grazing muzzles is very appropriate management.

I'm not sure why the managers wouldn't get to choose their horses' turnout paddocks first. There's no reason why a BO or BM shouldn't be able to reserve certain paddocks or pastures for their own use. Likewise, customers are free to move their horse elsewhere if the turnout arrangements don't suit them. Also, re: choosing turnout groups, unless you are paying for private turnout I don't think that most barns offer much of a choice. There very well may be an aggressive horse or two in the group.

Many barns charge arena use fees for outside instructors, or charge a fee if you want to have the arena for your own private use for a lesson. It's just business. Many barns also charge fees for blanketing, that is very standard and there is nothing outrageous about $2 for a blanket change. Why should a boarding barn not be compensated for extra work that they do for your horse?

It is not illegal to ask people to pay in cash or to refuse to accept checks. It is not an indicator of "illegal activity" or tax evasion. I also don't think it is remotely nefarious for a boarding barn to hitch up and move trailers to different parking spots if necessary. It was probably a courtesy on their part. Would you rather have had the barn insist that your dad come out and move the trailer?

A boarding barn also has every right to ask a customer who is not working out--for whatever reason--to leave. If I suspected that a boarder was getting ready to write a nasty rant about me on a national bulletin board, I'd probably not want to work for them any longer. If you are so unhappy about the place, why are you so unhappy about being "kicked out"?

Best of luck at your new place, I hope it works out more smoothly for you.

This BO does sound crazy, and, actually, I think it is good that the OP is warning people off the place. I boarded at a really terrible place once (for eight months - sometimes it takes a while to find a new place and make sure you are not going out of the frying pan and into the fire!), and I absolutely tell people what was wrong there and why I left. I don't ever say anything untrue about the place and my experiences there, and therefore am absolutely within my legal rights.

Yeah, I htink the OP would have had more of an argument if she had kept all the minor annotances out of her post like boarding areas vs. owner areas, the nail in the ring (I have to ride around my horse's field once a week to check out the fence b/c the BO doesnt give a crap at my current barn; I get ya but it could be worse!), the blanket charge, etc.

The real issue was the pee thing, which is funny and sad at the same time. OP, at my barn, one horse is only allowed one bucket of water a day because she "drinks too much". People are nuts everywhere you go.

Hope you like your new place. If not, there are plenty of options in your area.